§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Eyre.]
§ 12.59 a.m.
§ Mr. Ernest Armstrong (Durham, North-West)I am grateful for the opportunity of raising this very important question of the need to expand educational opportunities in the Northern Region. We talk a good deal about attracting new industry and creating new job opportunities, and sometimes we are apt to overlook the fact that education has a vital part to play in regional development.
The Northern Region, for which I have the honour to speak tonight, has in the past made a tremendous contribution to the prosperity of Britain by the inventive genius of its people, coupled with hard, skilful work done in the pits, in the shipyards, in the iron and steel works, and in heavy industries. We are undergoing great changes, with not a little success. Much has been achieved in recent years. During the past five years our roads programme has transformed communications throughout the whole region.
I came across some statistics recently which greatly interested me and which are relevant to this subject. Two-thirds of the hourly paid workers in the Northern Region are now employed in new industries, as against 40 per cent. only seven years ago. I say this because I do not want people to think that the Northern Region has only a depressing or black picture to present. Indeed, there are sectors of our educational development which compare favourably with those achieved anywhere in the country. Nevertheless, there is much to be done and I believe that education can be the key to our achieving parity with other areas, and in this the Government have direct responsibility.
The Northern Region, despite high unemployment rates, is still short of certain grades of personnel. Every year hundreds of our schoolchildren leave school at the statutory age and write themselves off far below their full potential. A tragically high proportion—83.9 per cent.—of our school leavers go straight to employment and take no part in higher education. In 1964—when I saw this figure I could hardly believe it—only 24.2 per cent. of 439 the children in the Northern Region stayed on at school after the statutory leaving age. That figure had increased to 44.9 per cent. by 1969. I know that the latest figure will reveal an even greater proportion staying on.
We welcome this vast improvement—it is almost double—in five years under the Labour Administration, but it is still 10 per cent. below the national average, and we will not be satisfied until we match the figure applying for the rest of the nation.
I could say much about polytechnics, colleges of education, the university at Tees-side, and so on, but in this short debate I will concentrate on education up to the age of 18 and I will deal in the main with the question of provision in schools.
There is a desperate need for nursery school provision. Far too many children in the whole country—this certainly applies to the Northern Region—begin their school life deprived and handicapped because they have limited access to the spoken word, to books, to pictures, to the kind of environment that would give them a good start in life. I appreciate the contribution made by voluntary playgroups, private nurseries, child minders, and so on, but the need can be met only by a massive extension of local authority nursery schools, particularly in the priority areas.
I want to make a controversial proposal, although I am confident that the Minister will consider it. I am a teacher and a member of the teachers' union. I have had experience of teaching in a primary school and then of being head of a large primary school in the north. If the alternatives are waiting for years to come for purpose-built nursery schools staffed by fully qualified teachers or using facilities now available, improved by minor works allocation and staffed by qualified teachers available, assisted by ancillaries and even with the help of parents, the latter must have preference. Unless we can do something big and do it now, generations of our schoolchildren will continue to be deprived.
The Northern Region received one-ninth of the national allocation for educational priority areas. This in itself is an indication of the leeway that has to be made up in the region. I was 440 told by the Minister last week that we have 3,877 primary school classes with over 35 pupils, which means that far too many of our children are denied the individual attention so necessary if they are to receive the education they deserve.
In 1968 a total 45.9 per cent. of our primary schools had been built pre-1902, despite the expenditure by the Labour Government of over £15 million on the primary school building programme. There is no doubt that massive resources are required, including allocation of teachers and the minor works programme. An indication of the willingness of local education authorities to do their share is shown by the expenditure on books, equipment, and so on, for it is higher in the Northern Region than in many others.
It is at secondary level that we really see the results of the economic history and social character of the region. Despite the fact that the building programme has doubled in the last six years, we urgently need purpose-built comprehensive schools offering a wide variety of course and making possible the supply of well-educated youngsters so vital to the future of the region. Early leaving has been a particular problem in the North, and the whole educational service is the poorer because so many children leave as soon as they reach the statutory age. Fewer children staying on means a smaller building programme because the sixth forms are smaller. The basic need element that has governed the building programmes for so long is less than in the more prosperous parts. Early leaving means fewer children going on to higher education and poorer overall secondary provision because the older the child the more units he represents in assessing rate support grant.
I have become convinced that one of the reasons is the mania that we have for labelling our children. If one labels a child "B" or "C"—it is sometimes done in the infants' school—and that label carries on, and both parents and child are aware of it throughout the school career, can one wonder that when the child is 15 both he and his parents are convinced that the best thing he can do is get away from school and begin work? There is far too much selection in our schools, and, of course, far too much selection and segregation outside them. 441 In the north far too many parents—1 say this as a practising school master—are far to willing to accept the verdict of the school and the label placed on their child. That is why so many of our children are leaving without realising their full potential. Education was developed in the region to serve the traditional industries where the worker learnt his trade in the job. Apprenticeships have been a strong feature, and they had to be taken up before the 16th birthday. Many children were forced to leave school in order to supplement the family income.
I say without fear of contradiction that we have penalised and punished the average and below average children for generations, and now we must give them justice by abolishing privileged selective schools. It is no crime to involve parents by reminding them that education is the key very often to better job prospects and a better living standard. If there is a choice, the community must choose in favour of those hitherto under-privileged.
I want particularly to mention maintenance grants. I know that maintenance grants for children staying on at school are discretionary. It is about time we made them mandatory to ensure parity between the various areas of the country. I asked a widow, who had two children at secondary school both likely to go on to higher education, to apply for a maintenance grant. When she filled in the form I was amazed at the scales laid down. The maximum grant payable to a 16-year-old child is £115 per annum, and for a 17– or 18-year-old boy the maximum is £140 per annum. One must have less than £450 a year net income to obtain the maximum grant. That is not being fair to our children. There ought now to be a mandatory system, a national rate, and this ought to be taken over in the same way as higher education grants and so on.
There is no doubt that much can be done for the schools. I could take the Minister to a school in my region which I know well. It is a neighbourhood comprehensive school. I know what is often said about neighbourhood schools. It serves two council housing estates. The numbers staying on at the school represent a figure well above the national average. That is so because the school offers facilities superior to many grammar schools. It has a dedicated staff who offer 442 a wide variety of courses. The courses are practical, realistic and vocational. There was a time when I was against vocational courses in schools. As chairman of an education authority I was asked about typewriting, and I said that typewriting had nothing educational about it. But when I have seen girls doing typewriting and so on, I have seen their attitude to school change completely. I have seen boys doing courses relevant to what they want to do when they leave school, and their whole attitude changes. I am fully converted to that kind of education.
The Northern Economic Planning Council, in a very interesting document called "Education" published early last year, made a strong plea for the Northern Region to be given special status for education. It suggested a 10-year programme under which we would have discriminatory treatment similar to that of the road programme initiated by the previous Government. The Council is right. We need nursery provision, improvements in the primary schools and Government aid to enable local authorities to go comprehensive. It is interesting that the Council advocated comprehensive schools for the Northern Region.
An injection of resources now—not in five or 10 years' time—would yield great dividends both socially and economically. It would enable the region to contribute to the prosperity of the nation. Even more important, it would give every boy and girl the opportunity which they ought to have to develop their talents and abilities to the full. I am very conscious of that every day in the North.
I want to see the Minister taking the initiative, allocating extra resources and pursuing a positive policy which would give individual children real equality of opportunity and enable the Northern Region to achieve parity with other areas of the country.
§ 1.14 a.m.
§ Mr. Mark Hughes (Durham)As one who until June was associated with the next rung on the educational ladder, may I press on the Minister that unless the points raised by my hon. Friend and neighbour the Member for Durham, North-West (Mr. Armstrong) are taken into account, and unless the nursery, primary and secondary schools in the 443 North-East are given the resources which they desperately need, much of the expenditure on the Universities of Durham and Newcastle and on the polytechnics in the region is ill-spent. Unless we get our basis right, we do not achieve the objective of this expenditure. Therefore, as one who is associated with that end, I briefly support my hon. Friend's submission.
§ 1.15 a.m.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. William van Straubenzee)The hon. Member for Durham, North-West (Mr. Armstrong) will forgive me and, I hope, acquit me of discourtesy if I am unable to deal with all the points that he has raised. I have noted them carefully, as I have those made in the necessarily brief intervention of the hon. Member for Durham (Mr. Mark Hughes).
I hope that it will not sound unduly pompous, which I hope that I am not, if I say that my first official visit in my job was to the North-East. That was because I have always thought that too much happens from London, and I wanted to start my modest and no doubt short career at my Department by seeing for myself on the ground some of the problems in a region which is rightly famous for a very vigorous people. As a result, I am fully conscious of the requirements of education in that area.
The hon. Member for Durham, North-West has referred to the Report of the Northern Economic Planning Council, which I have read with great care. My Secretary of State has asked me to say that she hopes, before long, to send the Council some further comments on its report. Naturally, there has already been contact on this matter.
I want, as the hon. Gentleman did, to start at nursery education. Both hon. Members are more entitled to say so than I am, but it is undoubtedly true that, for historical reasons largely connected with the pattern of employment in the North-East, nursery education has not developed rapidly. Over England and Wales as a whole, about 8 per cent of the combined 3 and 4-year olds are in nursery schools or classes, whereas the proportion in the North is very much smaller. That is why our predecessors devoted a sub- 444 stantial part of the first two phases of the Urban Programme to the expansion of nursery education in the North.
Between them, those two phases provide over 1,000 places, or about 10 per cent of the total for England and Wales as a whole. That has to be set against the Northern Region's 7½ per cent of the total school population. It is fair to recall that allocation.
In phase 3 of the Urban Programme, which we announced last month, the Northern Region has done even better. We have approved another 750 places, or about 15 per cent of the total for England and Wales. In terms of money, the north has done better still. About one-fifth of the total educational share of the third phase of the Urban Programme is going to the North, with a special Government grant of 75 per cent. So I am able to say that I am totally seized of the problem and that, as far as resources allow, we shall continue to expand nursery education in socially deprived areas.
The hon. Gentleman will recall that in its report, the Economic Planning Council recognised that the north had had a substantial share of the resources available for school building during the 1960s. In the three programmes so far approved for the 1970s, this record will be maintained and improved. The value of major projects to be started, including the special allocations for raising the school leaving age, will rise from £11 million in 1970–71 to nearly £12½ million in 1972–73. Within the total for 1972–73, the Northern Region will do particularly well in terms of resources for the replacement and improvement of old primary schools, which is the Government's first priority for school building after basic needs have been met. There are 39 projects in the programme for this purpose, at a cost of over £3.5 million, compared with 25 projects at a cost of £2.2 million in 1971–72. The primary school building programme as a whole in the Northern Region in 1972–73 will total about £4.8 million, 20 per cent. more than in each of the two previous years and indeed an all-time record.
The hon. Member made special reference to primary schools, and, without his expertise behind me, I totally agree with his order or priorities. He will, therefore, 445 be glad to know that the two programmes together will make possible the replacement of about one-fifth of those nineteenth century primary schools for which, according to returns by local authorities, there is a long-term need. 1 hope we shall be able to maintain this good progress. I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving me the opportunity to make this very clear indeed.
Perhaps I could mention one other small but important feature of school building programmes. Durham's allocation for minor works costing less than £30,000 each and this is an important human allocation, although it may be small money in national terms—has been increased from £380,000 in 1970–71 and 71–72 to £450,000 in 1972–73.
The House will appreciate that the 1972–73 programme is the first which an incoming Government, in this sphere, can lay hands on. Quite properly, reference has been made to class sizes, particularly in primary schools. I do not want anyone to read satisfaction into my words. One of the great interests of education is that one can never be satisfied because each progress produces greater demand.
In January, 1969, 10.2 per cent. of primary classes in the North had more than 40 pupils, compared with 9.5 per cent. in the country as a whole, so it was worse. As the hon. Member foreshadowed, by January, 1970, the North's figure had fallen to 6.8 per cent. as against 6.7 per cent. for the country as a whole. In other words, the north has been catching up, and the proportion of primary classes over 35 in the North, 34.6 per cent., is smaller than the figure of 37.6 per cent. for England and Wales. The figure for the proportion of classes over 35 is smaller per cent. than the figure for England and Wales. Under the quotas recently announced, staffing at schools in the North should continue to improve.
I was glad that the hon. Member mentioned the school leaving age and voluntary staying on. I take every opportunity of making it clear that the Government are firmly committed to raising the school leaving age in 1972–73 and the North has its substantial share of the necessary allocation of resources.
446 Even in advance of the raising of the school leaving age, we can all recognise, as the hon. Member has, that voluntary staying on in the North has shown a welcome increase. In 1964—I think this is the same figure as the hon. Member mentioned—24 per cent. of pupils were staying on at maintained schools. He was absolutely right to look at the figure with great anxiety, comparing it with the national figure of 37 per cent. By 1969 the gap had been halved to 45 per cent. in the North and 53 per cent. in England and Wales. No region made faster progress in this very important matter than the North.
I shall not go into higher education and the university sector, which is also important; but I should like to mention capital investment as a whole. The Economic Planning Council's Report, which I have already mentioned, showed that over the four years 1965–66 to 1968–69 capital investment for education in the North, other than universities, totalled over £47 million and represented over £14 per head of the population—the highest figure for any region in the country.
I do not want anyone to read into what I have said that I am satisfied or that, on behalf of my right hon. Friend, I am complacent. Not only in education but in many other services mentioned by the hon. Gentleman which I am not qualified to answer for at this Box there are still big gaps to fill. I understand that this throws heavy burdens on the local authorities, but I am seeking to show, without complacency, that there has been a very marked improvement over recent years. In particular—though I seek to make no narrow party point here, because this is not how the debate has been raised and conducted—specific decisions of this Government have continued and built upon that progress. I hope that I have shown that with my personal concern for and interest in a vital part of this United Kingdom I am not likely to overlook the proper and rightful claims of the North.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at twenty-seven minutes past One o'clock.